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The fledgling Indonesian tours offered by Chinese travel agencies will be badly affected by the blast on Bali, which killed at least 182 people Saturday night. Meanwhile, a reduced number of Bali-bound travelers is predicted by experts within a short predictable time to come in Indonesia.
Indonesian tour line cut short
China Travel Service (CTS), the first Chinese agency to provide Bali tours, sent more than 100 people to the island during the "October 1" weeklong holidays. Its first instinct after learning the explosion is whether it can keep its 400-people group scheduled at the yearend. Since Indonesian had not been attractive to Chinese due to "hostage" incidents, CTS deliberately chose Bali, that had never seen terrorist attacks before, as the destination, but never dreamed that the situation would get so terrible, a CTS Southeast Asian tour chef said.
The Hong Kong cable TV had put off a large-scale tourism promotion activity on Bali once planned recently, the Indonesia-China Tourism Association said.
Lauded as "Island of Paradise" and "Island of Gods", Bali hosted foreign tourists as usual even during turmoil times in Indonesia. Besides, it was elected not long ago as one of the "most worthiest tourist attraction of 2002" by world tourism circle.
Air line for Indonesia also affected
China's air line for Indonesia can only be found in Guangdong, and other Bali-bound tourists must transit in Singapore or Hong Kong, this is why Bali tour is highly priced in Beijing and Shanghai travel agencies, expert explained.
To expand Chinese market, Indonesian air company had early decided to open Shanghai-Singapore line at the end of October, so that Chinese tourists could fly directly to Jakarta or Bali via Singapore. A Beijing-Singapore line was also planned by next March. But the company may change its mind if the blast results in decreased number of Chinese tourists.
Many HK Tourists Injured
Six foreigners working in Singapore, who were at Bali for rugby competitions, got missing after the blast, according to news released by Hong Kong Rugby Association. There were three teams of HK rugby players, referees and families once went to the targeted nightclub, and two of them escaped the attack, the other remained unreachable by now. Two HK referees were badly burned, the Association said, with one back home for treatment and the other entered local hospital.
A hotline was put in service by related HK authorities after the blast. It is known that three foreign tourists from HK, two men and one woman, were injured in Bali, two of them holding British passports. While according to HK cyber media, another tourist, slightly injured in the foot, had returned to HK yesterday afternoon. Besides, there were some HK travel groups at Bali when the attack happened, but the number was not big since this was the off-season.
Currently there are more than 1400 Taiwan tourists in Bali, but no victim was reported.
( People's Daily October 15, 2002)
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